Of all things Geek. I am…
Do you like art? Collecting stuff? Anime, cartoons, or animated films? You don’t have to like all of those things, because enjoying just one of them is enough for you to consider collecting animation cels.
Before I dive into why I think this is great for anyone and everyone, let me first define what exactly an animation cel is, as it isn’t exactly the technology of today, though most of us grew up on it.
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In October 2023, the iconic Sydney Opera House had a birthday festival to celebrate the 50 years since it opened its doors to the world.
The Sydney Opera House website, under “Our Story,” explains why this building should be a little more celebrated than most in their short three paragraph history, which is honestly one of the more accurate and succinct art building histories I have ever read.
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Time capsules aren’t often great at relevance, but this book as “a construct amassed from American High School Yearbooks” by Pierre Huyghe and Douglas Coupland is a time capsule that endures.
School Spirit is “an excursion through the soul of a dead and disembodied student lost inside the memories and infrastructure of a California High School.” That’s the premise, but as explained in the book, Kelly, our dearly departed guide, can visit other high schools.
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At some point in our lives, most of us choose to see the value of the villain. It may be temporary, it may be permanent, but villains have solid work ethics and often great vision. While you can quibble over their methods or morals, they get shit done.
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Blonde, the much maligned fictionalized biopic of Marilyn Monroe from director Andrew Dominik and based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, may just be the art film to end all art films.
It plays with color and sound, aspect ratio and focus, cameras and camera angles, light and darkness, and hard cuts and pans. Put simply, it’s all of the things you can do with a film all in one film.
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